Armored Core: Masters of the Arena Tournament
by Gsajedi
Summary: First ficI've writen, please R&R, it's abou Armored Core, obviously


Greg Allen  
  
9-13-03  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fanfic (except for Death, City Wolf, Leviathan, and Lineage) including the other ACs, Armored Core, the Playstation2, and pretty much anything else in this thing, no matter how much I wish I did. That is all.  
  
The Semi-Final  
  
The AC Grand Tournament's Semi-Finals are taking place today, and I'm looking forward to a great match. I have to admit, I was really surprised when Jon, Daniel, Sam, and Jeremy reached the final free-for-all match. There were also three other players in this match. Once there were four remaining players, the next set of Finals would take place, a team match. I was also surprised when I found out we would be using the I-Suit, or Isolation Suit, for the Final. The highest in gaming technology, also one of the more expensive single things on the Earth. This huge machine weighs 7 tons total and has the ability to create the perfect game experience, you are almost in the game. It sends specific neural patterns into the brain through light and electrical waves. It give the mind and body a perfect feel for being in the game, everything in that world it sends you to feels real with out any effect on the body. It isolates your brain form the rest of the body, with the tube feeding your body the needed data to keep running while you're in it. So if you move your hand in the game, your actual hand doesn't move, but you feel as if it does. And to think that this expensive machine will be used in the AC Grand Finals in Tokyo, Japan. It was easy getting this far; I crushed everyone in each round I was in easily with my AC, Death. My only weapons were a MK-2 Karakawa and a Moonlight beamsaber, with a black paintjob and a body designed for fairly high armor with as little weight as possible. My AC's most distinctive features were its large shoulders and single color paint job. Jon even beat last year's winner in less than a minute with his AC, Prometheus. I watched most of the other matches and tried to learn some of the players' techniques and strategies. I still had no idea who the other three people actually were, I just knew them by their ACs. But each of those fights was done using the basic Playstation2. This fight will be an entirely different experience, I thought. After the suits were all put on by the players the pre-match was started, in which the players were to equip their ACs with their necessary equipment. Everything went blank. It was a very strange feeling not being able to feel your body but still thinking. Then an image formed in front of me, like as if I had just opened my eyes after a very weird dream. I was standing in an open hanger. As I looked around I saw that there was no one else around. I put my hands in front of me and felt, as well as saw, them move. God this is so real. I spotted a table with my Combat Suit on it and walked over to it to put it on. I also saw a Key Card siting next to the Suit. Though the second I touched the suit, it disappeared, and I felt a weight placed on my body. I looked down and saw that I was wearing the suit. I then saw a door marked as being Armored Core Hanger 1-A: Death. I knew I needed the Card to get through the door so I pulled it out and opened the door. As I stepped through, the lights turned on and a cool song started to play in the back of my head, as if it were an MP3 or something. They must be playing this song in the I-Suit. But my attention was quickly diverted by the sight of the large black robot in front of me. Death! I hurried over to the elevator and quickly pressed the Hatch button, eager to get inside the AC itself. I got to the hatch and saw a button that said Open, so I pushed it and the hatch opened wide enough for me to step inside the cockpit. I seated myself and put on my harness. Right as I was going to start looking for the Start-up switches, the AC started on its own. I heard a female voice say, "Welcome on board Death. Start-up engaged. Primary systems check complete. Satellite RADAR links completed. All systems are go." I looked around and pretty much guessed what some of the controls were, seeing how they were all labeled. I placed my hands on the controls. The A.I. voice then said, "Doors opening." The wall in front of me opened to reveal a huge city. Then I pushed Death out of the hanger and off to meet the enemies in the vast urban landscape. As soon as the round started everyone went into passive, in which you find cover as quickly as possible and keep a lookout for the enemy ACs. I pressed the overview map to see if anyone had moved. The area consisted of a massive city in the center and south, a bay to the west, mountains to the east, and a REWP or Radio Energy Wave Plant to the north. A REWP is a huge power system that takes energy from a geothermal plant and beams it into space, to provide power to an orbital space station. The beam is so concentrated, though; an AC would melt in seconds. It goes on and off every 30 minutes in a cycle. There was nothing on the map, no movements at all, just buildings. No action. So I decided to make some of my own. Death jumped into the air and to the right a little, landing on the top of a building. I remembered how all the players had Energy Disturbance detectors on their maps, so I used my Moonlight to try to attract someone's attention. Almost immediately, there was a response from a building near the other side of the map, towards the bay. I knew that it had to be one of the other three that we didn't know. I decided to not take the risk of getting shot down from the air, so I hit my overboost and went flying down the street next to the building I had been on at more than 800kph. I disengaged my overboost before I got close enough to be attacked and let my reactor catch up and fill my energy. I was ready for combat, so I started running down the street and eventually ended up at a street that ran all the way around the bay with a row of buildings in between it and the water. I checked my map and saw that my opponent was approaching quickly. This is also when I saw that a new dot had appeared near the other end of the bay, but this one was taking longer than the other to get to me. He was obviously aware of where I was but was probably going slow so as to not get caught in any traps set by the others. I decided not to worry about that enemy until this one was taken out. I followed the dot until it reached the road that I was on, and then looked up and out of the 360- degree screen. The AC coming towards me had his overboost on and was racing down the street with his large missile packs pointed at me. I saw that its paintjob consisted of gray camouflage specialized for urban combat. Then the player opened up a channel with me over the Comm unit. "This is AC City Wolf challenging the AC who just made his presence known to every player by activating our Energy Disruption detectors with that retarded move he made there." "Well, this is AC Death. You like to talk a lot don't you? You really need to shut up and figure it out that I did that to lure you here." "You're the one who'll be shutting up! I am not stupid! I knew that already, I was just...waiting to see if you knew that! Anyway, you have become too powerful! You must be eliminated!" "Right...you just keep thinking that after I wipe your AC's face into the street. Bring it on, DUMBASS!"  
I closed the link and started running forwards with my Karakawa out and prepared for his arrival. When I got a lock on, I started firing at him before he was close enough to fire his short-range missiles. Idiot, you're supposed to use long range first, I thought. He started to dodge to the left and right, with several of my shots flying straight through a couple of buildings down the street. I stopped firing to conserve ammo and prepared to use my Moonlight. As he got closer I started strafing to my left down the street next to me, but stopped before I got very far, and prepared for City Wolf to come around the corner. Seconds later he flew into my view and turned while in the air to target his missiles. Before he could fire them, though, I boosted towards him and slashed downwards with my Moonlight, cutting one of his missile packs off and continued past him. We both turned around to target each other, my Karakawa coming up to point at his core right as he launched a missile from his other pack. I shot two shots, both nearly missing the missile and slamming into City Wolf's core, knocking armor into the surrounding area. I knew I couldn't afford to be hit by the missile, so I started flying backward into the air in the only move I knew of that could escape the quick, highly explosive missile. I put on my anti-missile extensions built into my shoulders, but it was too late for them to take out the missile. I quickly started the maneuver, first doing a last back boost, then boosting to the right and then forwards towards City Wolf when the missile had gotten close enough. The missile flew wide and around in a big arc but turned around and started chasing me again. The main weakness of these missiles is that they have a maximum target lock-on range and a self-detonation timer if the missile was out for a set period of time. If you get far enough away and stay out of the missile's radar range, it will blow up in a relatively harmful explosion. So I started flying down and forwards, towards City Wolf, in the hopes of losing the missile, which was gaining on me again. I noticed City Wolf was boosting up to meet me in the air, so I shot a few Karakawa shots at him to stop him from getting another lock-on. One of the shots missed, while the other went through his left arm, severing the lower half, which I assumed housed a beamsaber. The arm fell down onto the street, landing on a parked car and sending it flipping into a nearby building, where it exploded. City Wolf fell to the street and stayed there for a few seconds before looking back up at me, obviously hoping I would have to come within his range soon so he could fire another missile. I knew I had to do something about the first missile before he had a chance to fire again, so I flew down and to the right towards an intersection with a really large building about a block away from City Wolf's position. I flew behind the building, knowing the missile would slam into it, which it did. The thing I didn't know was how large the explosion was, which ripped straight through the building and blew into me, melting some of my armor, but luckily not damaging me too bad. The building started to fall away from me, so I waited for my energy to recharge before going after City Wolf. Once I was recharged, I ran down the street to where I could get to the last place I had seen City Wolf at. I turned the corner and ran past the row of buildings that separated us. I turned the corner and saw a huge dust cloud settling in front of me, with the other AC hobbling out of the rubble of the rubble of the fallen building, which had apparently crushed his right leg and other missile pack, so now he was using his bazooka as a kind of crutch, while supporting himself on the other side with his stubbed left arm. "You can't win, just give up," I said. He seemed to just then notice me standing in front of him. He looked up and started to aim his bazooka at me. "I'll never give up!" he yelled through the comm. "Have it your way." I flew at him and stabbed with my Moonlight straight through his reactor, which started to overload. I quickly decided this would probably be a good time to get to fighting someone else, so I boosted away and around the corner just as his reactor went critical. A huge explosion went off behind me, but I was far enough away not to get hit by anything. At the end of the explosion, a message came up on my screen stating... "Gray Wolf has been defeated by Death." I laughed at this message because of its hidden meaning. As I was boosting, I noticed something large in the road ahead of me, which turned out to be the unused missile pack I had cut off earlier. I stopped and picked it up, noting it still had all four missiles in it. This could prove to be useful in my fights with the other remaining ACs. I noticed the AC that I had seen on the radar was fighting another AC that had appeared during my fight with City Wolf. I flew up on to a building and spotted both of them fighting on the tops of the buildings. One of the ACs I didn't recognize, but the other I knew well. It was Jon's AC, Prometheus, a light AC that packed a 20 centimeter machine gun on its right arm, with a large laser cannon and a 30 centimeter chain gattling gun on its back. I also knew that it had a Moonlight just like mine in its left arm.  
The other AC belonged to another of the three players we didn't know personally. I zoomed in on it and recognized it as Leviathan, an large, slow, and heavy AC similar to Sam's, except painted navy blue and green. It had a set of multi-missiles on its back and a grenade launcher in its right hand, while in its left hand, instead of the usual beamsaber, it had a spread howitzer with explosive rounds, which would explain the smaller explosions going off in little groups in between the larger ones made by the grenade launcher.  
The battle was an intense one, with missiles and shots flying frequently between the two fighters. Prometheus was dodging Leviathan's missiles, which were coming at Jon along with extra support missiles, in groups of six about every five seconds. Promethus was ducking and weaving around in mid air while still managing to fire at Leviathan, as well as spewing anti-missiles at the attacking ones, knocking several out of each group. Even though, some of the missiles still managed to connect and were knocking parts of Prometheus' armor into the surrounding area, which was being cratered by the remaining missiles, which flew around in gray arcs straight into the buildings. Several buildings under Jon had already fallen and some of the others were on the brink of collapsing. Leviathan evidently had ran out of missiles, and was waiting for Jon to drop back to the ground, totally ignoring the machine gun rounds hitting it, which were knocking smaller bits of armor into the air, but apparently not doing much damage. As Prometheus started falling he started to dodge the howitzers flying at him. He maneuvered a little bit and fell into the street, probably hoping to lure Leviathan into the confined space so it would be easier to kill him off, but also so he could recharge. Leviathan took the bait cautiously and ducked down into the streets below, where I knew Jon would already be preparing a trap for him.  
I decided to search out another one of the ACs lurking around the city in wait, so I headed off towards the mountains in hopes of finding an opponent. As I was boosting through the streets I came to en immense building near the edges of the city which was relaying a high-energy reaction inside it. I looked at the walls around the perimeter and was not surprised to see a large hole in the north wall. Sam, I thought. He always made his own entrance into facilities he used, so I decided to enter, even though I knew it was a trap. It was easy to find my way through; all I had to do was follow the long row of holes in the walls to a large cargo elevator, which lead to the bottom basement. I received a typed message as soon as I entered the elevator. "Mwahahahaha etc. etc...! You have fallen for my trap! You think you can defeat me? Well, we'll see! This elevator is set to take you to the bottom basement, where I'll be anxiously awaiting your arrival. See you there!" The elevator started moving down and the message disappeared, along with all the lights. It was completely black except for the glowing instrument panel and my "eye" on my AC, which cast an eerie glowing green light over the elevator's features. A message came up on my screen announcing: "Leviathan had been defeated by Prometheus." So, Jon won. I was expecting that. After almost a minute, the elevator started slowing down and entered a large room full of boxes and lit by red lights. In the middle of it, I got a reading indicating another AC in the area. I opened my Comm channel and started talking to the other AC. "Hello to unidentified AC in the warehouse basement, this is Greg, pilot of Death, what is your name?" There was a brief silence, and then... "Hello Greg. I wasn't expecting you to come, but I guess you've discovered me anyway. Why don't you come to me and you'll find out who I am." "Just one question: are you Sam, by any chance?" "...no. Come and find out."  
With that, he cut the other channel. I didn't like it, but I knew I had to do it, since the elevator had already left and the doors had closed behind me. So I went towards the other AC, trying to prepare myself for whatever they had in store for me. As I got close to the other's position I could hear an explosion on the other side as a box on the other side was blown up. Just then I remembered my missiles, and figured we'd start in close range, so I readied them. I tried to get a lock-on, but whoever it was was to far away. I slashed with my Moonlight through the remaining box and finally saw the other AC.  
It wasn't Sam. I could tell that. But I did know the AC. Big Red. It belonged to my other friend, Jeremy. It was a quick medium-weight four- legged type with an energy sniper rifle, a Moonlight, a light laser cannon, and a single large missile launcher. It was painted like Sam's though, bright red, with a radioactive emblem on the shoulders. "Hello Jeremy. I wasn't expecting to find you down here." "Hello Greg. I wasn't really expecting you either," he said as he engaged his large missile pack as well. "I was expecting one of you guys to come down here though, but I thought it would probably be Jon. Oh well, let's get this started! This isn't like last time, Greg, and it won't end like last time!" "We'll see about that!"  
We both boosted to my left, at the same time launching missiles at each other. We both started dodging the missiles; Jeremy went to my right while I continued going left. My missile switched directions and started chasing Jeremy as he boosted away to another set of boxes, which he ducked behind, and I lost sight of him. My anti-missiles started going after the larger missile, three of them connecting solidly, blowing the missile up harmlessly in front of me. Seconds later, an explosion shook the basement, toppling several boxes, as my missile went off. Electronic interference was still messing up my display, so I ran forward with my Karakawa, ready to fire at Jeremy, wherever he was. Suddenly several of the boxes to my right blew up and he flew through the explosion into the area that his missile had cleared, looking ok despite my missile. I started shooting at him with the Karakawa, missing several shots that blew up more boxes and hitting with two of the shots, one hitting his core and the other hitting his arm, though not enough to knock it off. He fired his light laser cannon again and again in rapid succession, causing me to start boosting to the side again and dodging the large white shots. I boosted to the right, and then the left, and then the right again, all the while moving forwards so I could slash him with the Moonlight. This wasn't my smartest idea, because I started getting hit more and more, and the damage started adding up. I got in close enough to slash but Jeremy just boosted away and kept shooting. I kept shooting back at him, hitting him several times and damaging one of his legs enough so he couldn't use it. I switched to the missiles again just as a huge fiery ball flew past me and destroyed a bunch of boxes near Jeremy. Who was that?! We both turned while boosting and looked to the side of us. There, just standing after shooting his grenade launcher was a dark purple AC. It was the third guy we didn't know, an AC named Lineage, and the pilot was a rich kid from the States who bragged about having his own personal I-Suit at his mansion during his matches. He had some of the most expensive parts in the game including an energy machine gun, the grenade launcher, a Moonlight and a set of powerful missiles in a single pack and, unlike most of the guys in the Arena like him, was a really good pilot as well. "Finally got your attention, did I. Good, it's about time I got in a fight! All right, I'm challenging both of you to an AC duel, right here, right now!" "Damnit! We were having a fight here! Whatever you want though, but be prepared to lose! Let's go Greg!" said Jeremy. I wouldn't put Lineage down as being too smart, challenging both of us at the same time, and I was pretty pissed at him for interrupting our fight, so I boosted with Jeremy towards Lineage. Lineage promptly turned around and took the elevator up. "Come and get me!" "Coward! Get back here! Come on let's take that one!" said Jeremy, who boosted to the left. There was another elevator next to the first one, so we took it up after him. "Be prepared for a trap," I said. "He may be waiting up there for us." "Yeah, I know. Ok, here's our stop. Get ready. Go!"  
We charged out the door, going opposite ways just as a grenade launcher shell flew into the elevator and exploded, blowing up the elevator. I went to the left while Jeremy went to the right. I was firing my Karakawa and moving in to fire a missile when some shots from his energy machine gun hit me in the right shoulder, taking a large chunk of armor right off but it didn't affect my anti-missiles, luckily. Lineage was boosting backwards while shooting at both of us with his machine gun, which was slowly knocking both of us down. We were shooting, and missing a lot, with my Karakawa and Jeremy's laser cannon, but the shots that did hit were severely damaging Lineage. I stopped boosting and started to run after the other two, trying to conserve my energy so as to not become a sitting duck while I recharged. All of a sudden, Lineage stopped boosting as well. He started running down a side street, which Jeremy flew right past, but since I was farther behind, I was able to run after Lineage. Lineage had disappeared around a far corner by the time I got to the street though, so we had no idea of where he was. Jeremy slid up next to me and started going with me. "You see where he went?" said Jeremy. "No. He was gone by the time I got here." "Damn coward, always runs away." "Yeah. We should split up to find him, but keep contact on. I'll take the left..." "And I'll take right. I got it, go!"  
We parted and went down our respective streets, keeping an eye out for Lineage, but also trying to avoid traps. Nothing happened for a few moments, then over the Comm I heard Jeremy yelling. "Greg! He set a trap! Get over here now!" "Ok, I'll be right there as soon as possible!"  
I boosted up and towards Jeremy's position on the map, looking for his position. I spotted several explosions a few miles away, about 10, I guessed, so I flew as quickly as possible to the spot. It was right next to the REWP. This couldn't be good. I finally reached the area to see a huge amount of small gray robots that were firing at Big Red all at the same time, along with Lineage, who wasn't being attacked by the MTs because he was behind Big Red. Jeremy was trying to fly away but wasn't able to because he kept taking so much damage from the MTs. He was doing a pretty good job at destroying them with the laser cannon, but there were too many. I started shooting the MTs once I was in range with the Karakawa, the electric blue lances of high-voltage energy spearing the MTs and destroying them with one hit. We finally managed to destroy all the MTs but were still being attacked by Lineage, who had his machine gun out and was pummeling Jeremy with it. "GRAAA!!! Stop it you BASTARD!!!" screamed Jeremy.  
Jeremy turned around and engaged his large missiles just as I landed, engaging them as well. He fired his missile before I could get in range, but Lineage used the same maneuver I had against City Wolf to dodge it, and the missile slammed into a building, blowing it up in a spectacular explosion. I got in range just as Jeremy fired his last one and I fired my second. Unfortunately for Jeremy, Lineage had launched a group of his missiles about the same time as Jeremy had. Jeremy had no chance to react to the missiles, which slammed into his AC and ripped it apart, armor flying everywhere, smashing into buildings and destroying cars on the street. The missiles exploded and caused Jeremy's reactor to start overloading and then go critical. "NOOOOOOO!!!" yelled Jeremy as he was destroyed in an expanding ball of flames and energy.  
The explosion blew up half of the buildings surrounding Big Red and hit Lineage just as Jeremy's missile hit. The explosion blew most of Lineage away and knocked him higher into the air where he hung for a few seconds, using his last boosting power to try to survive. It was in vain, though, as my missile slammed into Lineage and overloaded his core as well, making it go critical in a huge explosion that even hit Death, knocking me backwards with my screens shorting out from all the electrical interference from the twin blasts. I landed on top of a building and crushed it under my weight, adding to the damage done to the area.  
Death had shut down in mid-air, so I had to restart it. All the systems came back on except for a few of which that had been blown out by the impact and explosions. My screens came back on just as three messages came up on the screen. "Big Red was defeated by Lineage." "Lineage was defeated by Big Red and Death." "The four finalists have been chosen. They are: Sam Atkinson in Beowulf, Daniel Holland in Swat Lead, Jon Tuttle in Prometheus, and Greg Allen in Death. The Finals will take place tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Thank you for playing Armored Core: Masters of the Arena. Supported and played upon by Sony Entertainment's Playstation2 and its attachment, the Isolation Suit. "Live in your world, play in ours." Also by From Software, producer and creators of the Armored Core series and other great games, and Agetec, distributor of the Armored Core series in the United States as well as all those who cooperated to bring you this game and the I-Suit. Logging out."  
  
*Writer's notes: This was the first chapter I wrote in this series of AC fics. This fic's beginning is similar to that of Jon's, I know, but it goes off in a different direction. I plan for the next chapter to be the Finals. I had a lot of fun writing this, so if you liked or didn't like it, read and review. Oh, and read JonTuttleAC's fic right under mine in the AC section. Writer's e-mail: gsajedi@aol.com.  
  
PH34R M41 M4I L337 5I1LLZ!!!!! Later all! -_-, L337 4G3N7 GR3G ^_^  
  
Death. "Hello, Jon." came Greg's voice over the Comm unit. "What took ya?" "Grrr, you mean you singled me out?" "Of course, I knew you were the only one with satellite feedback." "Why?" "Because I want to have a beam duel with you." "Sure, okay, you'll lose just like last time." "I doubt it." were Greg's words as his left arm exploded outward in a wave of energy. His beam cut straight through a mini van, the person inside jumped out and ran away. Jon followed Greg and ignited his own saber. "NOW YOU LOSE!" Jon screamed as he boosted his AC straight at Greg.  
  
"Curses! Foiled again!" LOLOLOLOL...come on people, laugh a little, especially at yourself. I do it all the time.  
  
That is all. 


End file.
